This invention relates generally to interior decorating and more particularly to an interfitting stamp set for faux finishing walls or other surfaces.
While walls are most commonly painted or wallpapered, they may be surface decorated in other ways. Stenciling has regained some popularity, and there are various surface texturing techniques. Another method of wall decoration is to apply patterns with ink- or paint-bearing rubber stamps or rollers.
In prior techniques employing stamped decorations, the stamps were usually applied in a regular array, usually a rectangular array as a consequence of the stamps having a polygonal shape, or from the use of a cylindrical roller. Regardless of whether a strict array was followed, the patterns applied simultaneously by neighboring stamps could not overlap, because of the stamps' shapes.
It is often better to apply neighboring patterns simultaneously, so that they do not actually overlap and possibly smudge or contaminate stamps with different colored inks.
We have observed that floral or other patterns are more pleasing when different elements of the pattern have overlapping envelopes; that is, where straight lines cannot be drawn between at least some neighboring patterns. Such overlapping, common in wallpaper designs, cannot be achieved with common rubber stamps.
Having recognized the desirability of achieving envelope overlapping in stamped designs, and having observed that overlapping cannot be obtained with polygonal stamps, we have developed a set of interfitting stamps as described below.